Some kids wanted to be firemen when they grew up, some wanted to be astronauts, some wanted to be ninjas, but I wanted to coach high school basketball. This is a blog about coaching basketball and basketball in general. I have a deep passion for basketball and am going to use this blog to share that passion with others as well as expand my own knowledge and ideas. I might post Xs and Os, drills, coaching ideas, or just random thoughts on basketball. Enjoy!

Monday, January 12, 2009

A Funny Story....At Least Now

Saturday the freshmen team I coach played White Bear Lake. I LOVE my freshmen to death, they are great kids, work hard, but are not supremely talented this year. We spend a TON of practice time learning the game and working on fundamentals, and it is starting to pay off. We had some tough games in the beginning, but have been closing the gap as the season has went on, which is a big positive.

So in this game against White Bear Lake (WBL from now on), we were playing our tails off. Getting on the floor for balls, playing together, working hard on defense, everything we've talked about doing. WBL was a pretty solid team, but we were hanging with them and actually had the game tied right at the end. So they scored with a minute left to go up 2 points, and we brought the ball down. I could tell we were not sure what to run - I had just checked with the book and was told I had 1 timeout remaining - so I decided this would be as good a time as any to take it. When I asked the official for a timeout, he turned to me and said "Coach, you don't have any timeouts left". I looked at him like he was crazy and informed him I had a timeout and I wanted to use it! He again said I didn't have a timeout and wasn't going to give it to me. I started jumping up and down DEMANDING I have my timeout and he refused to blow his whistle. As this is happening my guys proceed to lose the ball, the other team goes down, scores and gets fouled.

At this point I am border line nuts about the no timeout call. The official goes to the scorers table and asks (as the other team is shooting the FT), they inform him that I do in fact have that timeout I wanted. The official looks at me and gives me some baloney excuse about how it was the books fault. I contended he should have blown the whistle when the timeout was requested and if was not one left, should have given the T for calling to many. He gave me more baloney...but I wasn't making any sandwiches with it.

Great story to underline the idea that we are all human and we all make mistakes. Things happen that are just crazy sometimes and you have to be able to smile about them, even if not getting the timeout may have cost us the win in this situation. It was a good learning experience for my guys in terms of not always having the cards fall on the table as you may want them to. Sometimes in life you get stiffed. And further more, if we hadn't given up 10+ points in second chance baskets to WBL, we wouldn't be in this situation anyway. Great way to highlight the fact that every single play in a game is important.

1 comment:

I had a similar situation happen to me. We had a four point lead and the team we were playing was extremely talented but were not strong in the coaching department. We inbounded the ball quickly and spread the floor. The other coach realised that she hadn't told her players to foul promptly called time out and was granted one while I had posession of the ball dribbling it up the court. I went off!! Then realised that no matter what I had to inbound the ball again anyway. Luckily we inbounded the ball and won the game without further incident.

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About Me

I am a thirty year old who loves working with young people and basketball. It's my passion and what I've wanted to do since childhood.

This upcoming season will be my 11th year and I will be the sophomore coach at Tartan High School (Oakdale, MN).

I've learned a lot in my ten years, but the biggest thing I've learned is that I know enough to know that I don't know anything. I am constantly trying to better myself as a coach and gain more knowledge about coaching and the game. I'm hoping to learn from others in this blogging experience. With that in mind I would greatly appreciate any comments on what I post on the blog, I'm always looking to learn and that's part of why I put my ideas on here.